


Waking Up Without Her

by Leopold



Category: Warframe
Genre: Lotus, Operator - Freeform, Tenno - Freeform, Warframe - Freeform, Warframes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-07-11 17:04:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15976664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leopold/pseuds/Leopold
Summary: This will be a SPOILER HEAVY Warframe fanfiction, primarily made for individuals who have finished Second Dream, War Within, and The Sacrifice. If you have not finished these late game quests consider stopping reading now. You have been warned.What happens if a Tenno wakes up after the Lotus leaves? Who guides them? How do they discover the truth? What path would someone without guidance follow? And more importantly, would they hold the same goals, the same beliefs as their kin?





	1. Awake

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a SPOILER HEAVY Warframe fanfiction, primarily made for individuals who have finished Second Dream, War Within, and The Sacrifice. If you have not finished these late game quests consider stopping reading now. You have been warned.

I see the ship again. I know I’m on it. I know I can’t escape it’s halls. The uneven footsteps, my breathing, it all seems to continue for an age. Until there is just blackness and ragged breaths. The darkness around me and the silence makes my fearful gasps that much more painfully obvious. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was still gripping the metal railing that had already broken my leg. I knew he was somewhere in the dark. I had re-lived this moment perhaps a hundred times. I knew what happened next. I knew where it would end, and when the scene would start to loop again. But it was then I heard her call to me.

“Wake up.” It was quiet at first, as if it was whispered in the room, or perhaps just across from myself, on the other side of the toppled table I was hiding behind. It was calming. So calming that I almost didn’t feel the fear, or the jagged pain in my leg as it was grabbed and roughly pulled by the man above me. And as I cried out it came from his mouth. Louder, different.

“Wake up.” And as he swung the pipe down the vision faded, and was replaced with a pneumatic hiss, choked out by the sounds of rushing water.

**Waking Up Without Her**

**Chapter One: Awake**

My vision blurred and faded as I felt icy water rushing into my metal bed. I gasped and lashed out in surprise to instinctively swim toward air, some survival instinct within me, but I recalled quickly there was never a need to do so. I couldn’t breathe, after all. My vision finally came around and I looked at my surroundings, my pod seemed to be damaged, causing the automatic failsafe to wake me. An uncommon occurrence, but not unheard of.

 _How long was I asleep?_ By now the water had reached my waist and I leaned forward to press a hand against the glass. _Fractured_.

Something must have happened, something powerful enough to fracture the rubedo-infused glass. I pulled my arm back, and tentatively thrust it forward in a half-hearted attempt. There was enough room. I gave a tired, but no less determined punch to further fracture my cryopod. My first attempt met with no results, the pod only giving off a very dull noise, further dampened by the water pouring into the pod. My strength had not yet returned, made only stiffly more difficult by the icy water that chilled me to the core. If the chamber was waking me up then surely it was no longer functional, and I needed to escape. I steadied myself, gathered my strength and tried once more. With another powerful strike the metal frame gave way in a haphazard and awkward way as it was forced a way it was never supposed to be opened. Even after cryosleep it seemed my strength was intact. My memories returned slowly, and the dream faded away so quickly I forgot that mere moments ago I was reliving a nightmare. I forgot what it was about.

 _Doesn’t matter._ I thought to myself as the water entirely swamped the pod in one horrible, freezing rush. My mind reeled, a searing pain across my temples as I gripped the sides of the dream-inducing coffin. An instinct of fear, something I had not felt in what seemed like an age. A flash of darkness, a terrifying feeling and a sudden increase in my movements as I felt the urge to thrash and escape. The thought faded as quickly as it appeared and I found myself more or less still laying underwater. In a moment of silence, I pondering the blanks I found in my memory.

 _Strange._ I stepped out of the pod, attempting to orient myself. Water was not my strong suit, but the fear I felt was dampened when I saw I was only a few feet below the surface. A rather dim light flitted through the water around me, sending a few streaks haphazardly through the water.I had to climb up the rocks nearby, as my swimming was rather poor, especially being as heavy as I was. I broke the surface, mostly silently and looked around. This was not a place I was familiar with. The darkened sky above was cloudy with massive, billowing plumes and the ground below was coated with valleys of ice and water. A bizarre sight, even compared to the great vistas I had already explored in my life.

I examined the spikes along my forearms. Things were as I remember them, and it seemed my body was unaffected from the long sleep, but I did not know much else of my situation. Where was I last? Why was I put to sleep? These questions barraged me with doubts and worries. I tried to stick with what I knew. I was within a planetoid likely far from the central star of the Origin system, which would explain the ice storm. I was… _No. I_ am _a warrior_. And as a warrior I was already on the defensive, trying to plan my next move.

 _Weapons._ I whirled around. Of course I had no weapons. No one goes into cryosleep with a firearm. All I had was my fists and Atlas. _No_ , I corrected myself again. _I am an Atlas._ It was then I could hear a scuttling noise approaching me and I quickly took to hiding myself within a fissure of the nearby cliff face, not delving much past the entrance in order to observe whatever was coming. A medium-sized mechanical creature with multiple appendages was scuttling along the snow and ice. A scanner of some sort humming carefully and steadily at the water. This was not technology of either Orokin or my fellow Tenno. It was something foreign. A word bored its way through my subconscious and stuck in the forefront of my mind. _Sentient._

I could not place it, though it seemed familiar. My worries were only multiplied as a group of bipeds that appeared to be following the machine came into view. The many-legged proxy crawled into the small pond of water I had awoken in and came back out, flashing and making several audible noises, noticeable even from where I stood. The others gathered, and collectively tugged the pod to the surface. One of the bipeds in a colored suit standing out among the rest made some gestures before the machine. It spoke in a loud language I had no recollection of, nor did the speech patterns sound familiar to me. Undoubtedly it was in response to my absence. Wherever I was it quickly became apparent my pod had not landed in friendly territories. In my hideaway I examined my shields to the best of my ability, much of my awareness of self was still recuperating, and would probably take some time to readjust. Regardless, they were unresponsive, perhaps due to my systems not fully yet functional. No one had told me how cryosleep would effect me, and I was forced to do nothing other than ponder what to do next.

The small, cavern-like ravine I was hiding in was close enough to the search party to examine them. A group attempting to rescue a Tenno would likely not be armed to the teeth, of this I was sure. These were machines here to contain or destroy. My mind went to and fro as I tried to hatch a plan. If they were indeed machines as I expected then destroying one may alert the rest. But I would have no access to weaponry without breaking at least one of them. To defend myself I needed a gun. A master of gun and blade cannot function without either, though I was often told otherwise. With my strength as my only weapon I would go down in a firefight without much question. For now it was best to withdraw and keep hidden.

It was then I began making my way quickly though the passage, hoping it was not a dead end. I noticed odd things, such as how the rock face was dripping with water that seemed far more dense than a standard mixture of oxygen and hydrogen should have been. The slick, icy path I tread was nearly as watery as the pool I had awoken in. My pace slowed when I realized I was splashing loudly and without caution. The ravine narrowed and eventually after several minutes I found myself at an impasse. The walls were close enough that, with a little effort, perhaps they could be scaled. I found this a much better option than returning to the waiting arms of those unknown entities. My athletic training started to return to my memory, and I attempted to scale the ice only to slip and fall down quickly, my body making an incredibly loud noise: a mix of a splash and crack of ice and stone beneath me.

After regaining my footing I steadied myself. Perhaps there was something more to do. I turned my attention lower and crossed my arms, telling myself I was gathered my strength. _How would I have done it back in the training grounds?_ My mind pondered as I tried to channel all my energy into my limbs, willing a magnetic force back to them before trying again. I propelled myself up the face with much more traction, the energy and force exerted from my body exhilarating to feel again. It took nearly a minute to reach the top of the cliff face, far far above the fissure of rock and ice that otherwise would surely have been my prison... Or tomb.

I reached the top and felt a great lightness in my chest. Surely such a feat would have exhausted most creatures, but I was a Tenno. Much higher than I was before, I gazed out across the strange land that I could now see in full, though it did far more bad than good. My heart sank as I examined the terrain. Great towers of Orokin design long coated in ice while smaller outposts of metal and build seemed to surround the landscape in a series of outposts and stations for various, unknown purposes. Wherever I was had at one time been part of the Orokin empire, but now it seemed that it has been overtaken by another group, by which laws and orders they operated could be nothing more than speculation to me. I could observe great ships above, occasionally drifting past plumes of cloud and snow, and some smaller transports breaking through the drifts. Perhaps, some several miles above was the dying light of day, while down below it seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer, some of the lights around the bases flickering to life in response to the fading luminescence. I paused on that twilit bluff to contemplate my fate.

My ship would most likely not be here, and as a result my ability to leave whatever planet or moon this was would be severely set back. I was unable to read or discern the language of the individuals here, of this I was sure. It would also hinder my ability to contact and convince friendly individuals for assistance, if indeed they did exist here. But most troubling is that this was assuming I would want to leave the planet. If I was no longer within the Origin system then the unknown would be far more dangerous to traverse than living in hiding on a more or less stable planetoid. I was isolated, utterly and entirely.

Several low-flying drones were heading in my direction, so I quickly decided i would focus my efforts on infiltration of the primary tower that seemed to be the central hub for activity. My path went away from my destination, trying to give wide berth from the location I had been submerged. Subsequently, this would draw the attention from my pursuers, and it would most likely be the primary area they would scour. Knowing this, I made my way over snow and rock for a long time, arcing my path in order to further gain distance from the location I knew many of the machines to be searching for me.

As I walked I continued to ponder my situation. I was not a stealthy Tenno, to say the least. I was not revered for my ability to quietly see a mission through, or assassinate prime targets without so much as another set of eyes laying on the slain individual like brothers and sisters of mine often were. My options were as limited as my paths, and as I made my way closer to the tower I inwardly grimaced at my situation, yet it seemed my only choice.

And at the time my strategy sounded fool-proof.

 


	2. Assault

**Chapter Two: Assault**

 

Wind clawed at my arms and legs, threatening to tear me off the tower as I scaled it. I feared discovery far more than falling. I had leapt from heights taller and been unphased by the fall, my body far more than capable of withstanding the shock and impact. I had once leapt from the Tower I was stationed at simply so see if I would reach the bottom faster than the elevator. Many of my peers called me foolhardy and reckless for this, as it was not the only display I had attempted over the years. This aside, heights did nothing to my courage. My only fear remained with my possible detection. Where my fellow Tenno may have been crafty and silent as the breeze, I was far from it. My specialty was often on the front lines of conflict, an enforcer of peace. Or, rather, a destroyer of it. 

I paused in my scaling to rest on a slight precipice where I managed to crouch somewhat steadily. Turning my attention outward, rather than upward, I could see the landscape a little better from this height. I was perhaps 300 meters up, and the view far below was nearly obscured by the blowing snow and clouds. This, however, did not interrupt my view of some of the taller structures. The strange smooth surface of what appeared to be of some foreign origin otherwise was stark in comparison to the often elaborate design of Orokin architecture. More often than not, entwining golden frills and unnecessarily beautiful flourishes into the most basic of items was a key component of almost all Orokin legacy. The fanciful towers long coated in ice and decayed by time showed by the one I could view meant that the normally pristine and cared for architecture of this region had not been kept up for a long time. 

_ Of course _ , I thought at the time,  _ I must be in a region where the Orokin were pushed out _ . This would explain the unknown language as well as the towers having a severe lack of the usual perfection they almost always implored. One of the primary objectives of the neural sentries was to keep the tower in pristine condition, not allowing outside contaminates or a severe overgrowth to take place while the tower was functional. And while this tower in the ice storm appeared to be functional, the lack of upkeep was deeply troubling. It was a large warning flag in a field of troubling items. I can’t recall how long I sat on that tower, the wind attempting to toss me from the tower at every small breeze and great gale, but I paid it no heed. I was steady, and my body sat resolute there as I meditated, taking my time in thinking through my predicament. 

Were I to scale the tower I would have access to some of the nearby transports, and if they were operated by individual worker drones then the chance of being discovered would be drastically increased. Until I was able to procure a weapon staying out of sight was my only option. I considered this as I looked up, waiting for another transport to guarantee activity. My line of thought followed this: if one transport approached the docking area then the likelihood of being spotted on the climb up was severely cut, as there would probably not be another coming for some time. However, I began to second guess myself, starting to worry about the great number of possibilities I would face.

_ Perhaps if it was automated and there were cameras I would be spotted regardless, or another transport will already be on its way as soon as the docked one leaves, or they already knew I was scaling the tower and as a result were waiting for me with armed forces on the docking area already, or… _ These thoughts were a flurry within my mind, unable to decide the best course of action. I had perhaps considered the same course of action in almost ten different ways when the sounds of an approaching ship through the wind broke my self-inflicted panic. I decided simply to act, rather than plot any longer. Inaction and further anxieties about possibilities would do nothing but cause me grief.

I set my mind to it and I stood, turning and feeling the jolt of energy through my limbs. My personal shields were still inactive, but my strength never hid behind technology to begin with. Using magnetic pulses I began to scale the tower again, perhaps another hundred yards below the lip of what appeared to be an outdoor loading bay. I made my way slowly, feeling the magnetism begin to waver slightly, unable to keep the full charge while I was not at peak performance. I could only hope it would be enough to get me to the top as it came within reach. As silently as a  I managed to grab the ledge and flip myself up to the platform above. My eyes scanned the area as I tried to quickly gauge where the best location to stow away would be when, in my infinite grace, I noticed I was knelt directly in front of a very startled individual. 

Up close, I was able to glean a bit more information. The covering of this machine was primarily metal reinforced silicone of some sort, and looking up I could see the boxy, metal helmet of this individual who frantically reached for the helmet, giving a quick and stern call in that foreign language I could not understand:

“Jatttasey!” Surely a call for assistance. Raising myself up, I outstretched my fist and gave an angry roar, furious at my inability to move stealthily. My blow crushed the lower segment of the helmet in an upward arc, sending the bipedal drone sailing through the air and landing with a crunch of metal and a wet sound of dense liquid. At first I thought this to be oil, but after the growing puddle around the drone appeared a deep crimson I assumed this was no drone, but a rather primitive mixture of organic life and machinery. It was not until I saw the helmet was off and beneath was the still-surprised visage of a what I could only think to be a long-distance cousin to the Orokin I once served. What lay before me was no longer royal and regal, but a being of toil and labor. The Orokin had hardly lifted a hand in their life, yet this one seemed to have lifted far more than the world upon them.

My gaze wandered, as my mind ceased to focus on the urgency at hand while I admire the being before me. The technology seems primitive, but the more I examined it the stranger it became. Rather than frayed circuits and wires of misplaced and haphazard craftsmanship, I began to see the artistic choice of sleek silver and polymer, an embedding of electrical circuits and energy processors that appeared to keep the suit functional. What surprised me most, however, was the fact I could recognize the design of the paired shield units which were hidden stealthily within the shoulder pieces. The design appeared to be a direct copy of an older unit that was used for operatives during the Old War. I knelt down to place a hand to the device, trying to glean some sort of deduction from this find when a loud, blaring siren went off.

The sound was sharp, artificial, and quite obviously an alarm. I stood and now, unable to examine the guard for clues my eyes fell to weapons, anything to use to defend myself when I saw a length of metal strapped to the individuals hip. I snatched it without much thought and began to examine the strange item. The metal was bound together in a strange way, and at the very least I hefted the length, thinking perhaps it would be a good length in order to strike at others. As I swung it to test the weight, much to my surprise, I found the metal to crackle to life, an electrical charge running through the rod as I jolted my hand back, dropping it. It seemed I had grabbed hold of the charged end, and promptly received a painful reminder to be more careful with strange technology. Taking hold of the tool’s proper end, I readied myself as the bay doors to the building interior opened for several more bipeds to come pouring out toward me. Obviously, the alarm was set off and here was the security team.

Instinct drove me forward, the urge of battle ripping at my chest and demanding a fight, but some sense of urgency caused me to look away from the marching machines to see the landed ship, still powering up for an emergency takeoff. A decision had to be made. I could risk fighting the drones, but I had a sinking feeling I would lose easily. They outnumbered me, and had far superior weaponry than my simple baton, that may not even be lethal. I stalled, and I saw some of the bipeds had mounted cannons on their backs, walking turrets as they marched toward me. I had to choose. And while the warriors call within me ached, I turned from the armed drones, all of which began firing at me the moment they had visual contact. My steps drew me close to the ship and I flung my only means of defense back at the drones, hoping it would at least slow them down as I would need all my strength to cling to the vessel. It had reached nearly a meter off the ground as I leapt forward to cling to the ship as it began to fly off, bullets piercing the hull not even inches away from where I clung.

Wind tore far harder at me as the ship went upward, seeming to be moved by a simple machine, like many of the other constructs. I adjusted my grip, hoping this would not be taking me somewhere even more dangerous as the arc of the ascent drastically peaked, the ship nearly going vertical as I desperately willed whatever force still remained in my limbs after the long climb to last just a little longer. I took a moment to turn my head, not expecting to see anything within the malstrom, but to my surprise I found that we had not even entered the vortex around the tower yet. The ship was nearly at the wall of the storm and I braced myself even harder, my grip making the metal of the ship creak and groan in agony, my own handholds being created from the force. 

It hit me far harder than I would have ever expected. The force of the storm ripping at me with more force than I had thought possible, and I felt my grip slipping as the ship slammed into the cloud cover, flinging me from the hold I had made. Tired arms still outreached to the now vanished aircraft I plummeted. Air whirled around me, and for a moment I thought my hope of escape had disappeared with the drone. Desperation set in, anger, and many other emotions as I fell through the buffering winds. Finally I broke the cloud cover and awkwardly turning as best I could in the air I looked, gazing over the landscape and trying to take in as many details as possible, for I would receive no better vantage point than this. The best view I could get was when I craned my neck backward, unable to flip around entirely, my weight having me plummet far too quickly, and my lack of understanding in aerodynamics only made it that much more difficult to move around in the air.

What appeared to be a giant monument, perhaps larger than the tower in the center of the storm appeared in the distance, but what was far more astounding was the massive robotic quadruped I watched slowly scale one of the cliffsides, seeming to roam across the wastes. These glimpses caused me to ponder a moment, the sinking feeling in my chest reaching its climax as everything at once was dashed away from sight as the cliff face rushed up to meet me, my heavy body crushing rock and ice as I practically bounced off the cliffside, tumbling further from the heavens with another massive crunch of ice. There I lay within the seeping pool of ice and shards of glittering dust raining down onto me. I scoured the sky for signs of any other aircraft, but I saw none, and I winced as I felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder. With the impact, I had not noticed it, but now that my senses were returning I turned to see a large spike of ice piercing my armor, covered with a splatter of red and melting fast from my body heat.

Taking hold of my shoulder I rolled out with a gravelly howl and got up to my knees, still clinging to the wound as I waited for it to heal, the earth and rock around me moving to patch the wound. To my dismay, my gaze fell on a group of armed individuals surrounding me. More machines, and more trouble. Unarmed, and now spent from my endeavor, I paused a moment to gather my strength. As one stepped forward, I poised myself to strike, reading a blow that would surely immobilize it, if not destroy it when the biped lowered its weapon. 

“It really is a Tenno.” I heard in Common somewhere to my right. This caused me to pause a moment, the harsh language of the machines I had heard earlier were nothing like this. The one approaching me spoke up.

“Do you understand Common? We are here to help you.” I watched them, many of them seeming to relax their stances as I relaxed myself.

“What is a Tenno doing out in this territory?”

“Do we have active operatives in this area?”

Several of the machines began to converse, in a far more mundane way as I looked to watch the approaching one come even closer. 

“It’s alright now, Tenno. Rest easy. We’re United members.”

 


	3. Solaris

Solaris United, I was informed by the operatives, was a collective front by the working class Corpus gathered under a banner by a mysterious member who organized the many different working floors on the planet. Not every member was on board with the movement, and many risked life and limb regularly to fight against the upper board who constantly put pressure on the lower tiers, working them within an inch of their lives. 

They spoke so I could understand, but some would often fall back to their native tongue, talking amongst themselves in what I assumed was the Corpus language, similar to that I had heard on the tower. I did note that almost every member but the one who appeared to be the leader showed immense fear toward me. I was not unfamiliar with this, as many of the Orokin had always acted similarly around us. We were the wild card.

Wary and still confused, I quickly gathered that this was a friendly group that seemed to ally with my kind to some degree, and recognized me. Of course, my judgement had to be swift, as the group had quickly rushed me away from the location I had fallen from, as many transports had begun to hone in on the location shortly after the incident. Without weaponry I was forced to otherwise accept the assistance of strangers, hoping that this was a true offer of friendship. It was several miles into the mountains that I was approached by one of the squadron.

“You know” The augmented operative began, “I’ve only heard the stories of Tenno warriors, fighting their way across the system. You’re a rare sight to say the least. You are the first, and perhaps only I will ever see in my life.” They continued in awe. The operative shifted their weapon uncomfortably, the communication barrier obviously bothering them as I simply nodded in response, but his words bothered me. Before I slept, it was impossible to see any Orokin of status without at least one Tenno guard. To say that Tenno are now rare was problematic, but gave me hope. I would be able to locate more of my kind. The operative continued: “You’re a warrior of few words I suppose.” To this, I also nodded. They were about to continue when another called to the first from ahead of us.

“Kota. You know they can’t talk, right? The Tenno are mute.” The one that seemed to be the leader had been talking to others, but during the uncomfortable, one-sided transaction of words they had come back.

“Oh! My mistake. I had thought that…er- nevermind.” Kota said as he reached up, an augmented forearm rubbing some spot on the back of his metallic neck. I could only assume this was a nervous habit from before the change. I cannot imagine many nerve receptors being placed on the artificial replacements, especially on the more worn models. 

“It is alright, brother. Many of us have never seen one before, and I only know it myself from Solaris informants.” The commander of this brigade was also heavily augmented, as I would expect in these harsh environments. The figure stood only a small bit higher than the rest, which could easily be an extension on the body to compensate for an otherwise short stature. They then turned to me and held out a hand.

“We arrived in such a hurry I could not properly greet you, Tenno. My name is Rho Ulova. I am the field commander for the Solaris operatives in this sector of Venus.” The voice that greeted me was pleasant, somewhat soothing. I hoped it was not another artificial lie made truth by technology. I took their hand and shook it, unsure if I was more satisfied to have a name to the planet or a group of allies at last. But regardless, I looked around after this greeting to the landscape around us. 

_ Venus? But the planet was so close to Sol, how was Venus covered in ice? _ . Rho must have deciphered my confusion as they continued to explain.

“You must be noticing this place is much colder than anticipated. It’s actually because of those towers.” Rho pointed to one of the tall, Orokin structures that appeared in the center of the storm around us. “They were put here by the Orokin, long before any of us, in an attempt to make Venus hospitable. The entire storm is manufactured and managed by those structures, and were you to step out of the storm you would find the remainder of Venus progressively warmer the further you travel from any of these sites, so much so that the untamed stretches still remain a burning wasteland. 

“I wish I could explain more, but we have to get through the pass ahead. If we are to get you out of Corpus sight then we need to get to somewhere more discreet. We have contacted some local factions and spread word of a stranded Tenno, we will have to see what comes of it. In the meantime, please come with us. We would be able to hide you within an outpost for the time being, but we need to make sure you are not whisked away by the roving proxies. I have received word more are converging in this sector, including an Orb Mother. As such, we should hurry.” The commander handed me a rifle of some sort, technology I was unfamiliar with and gestured toward me as they continued walking. I followed after.

_ What a strange group. _ I thought as I looked around me. Rho continued talking, but my focus fell to the operatives that trudged on beside me. Almost all of them were outfitted poorly for the frigid environment, however so many of them were augmented so much that I was more surprised when I saw one with organic material remaining than I was observing the more mechanized soldiers. So few of them wore any kind of environmental protection, and I could only assume the low temperature was held at bay by the excessive metal replacing the bodies of these people. I began to wonder how many of the proxies I had seen before had once been people, and how many still remained. 

“ **Do you still see him?”** Rho’s voice called back to me over their shoulder, and I picked up my pace, having my attention elsewhere. I nearly had to jog to catch up with their pace, and when I did I looked at them with curiosity. When Rho looked back, they no longer had a head of metal and circuits, but instead was a face reminiscent of Orokin ancestry. Long lines of raised black markings ran across the temples and down, crossing over the cheeks as this individual looked to me. The stark familiarity freezing me to the spot as I heard a horrible laugh.

Shock moved me, and I raised the weapon and held it pointed at what was once Rho. My weapon bobbed slightly as I held it there, poised and ready to fire when Rho’s original voice seemed to break the spell that bound me. 

“Tenno? What’s wrong?” They quickly turned behind them and pulled out their own weapon, prepared and ready for something unseen while I was still recovering from the confusion. I stood, appalled and unprepared, weaponry still pointed at the platoon leader until  one of the operatives shouted.

“Raknoids! On the cliffside!” My attention turned upward as a group of smaller quadruped proxies began their descent toward the group, almost exactly where I was facing.

“Good eye, Tenno! Form up!” Rho shouted at the others, gathering their force by me. The movements of others seemed to wander through a slow movement, as if underwater. Even my own motions were slow, slower than the others, but the battlefield’s call was far stronger than any feeling of dread my mind could conjure. My body felt airy, light enough to heaft even the largest tower if I wanted to do so. Movement became forced out by instinct and repetition.  My actions, not entirely my own, turned me to back up slowly as my energy weapon fired round after round at the drones. My first shots went incredibly high, surely due to my inability to think, let alone aim. The shot time on each round was far slower than I expected, and my compensation was large. I led each target by a large margin as most of the operatives behind me shuffled over the ice at a breakneck pace.

At the time, I heard only a few muffled yells and orders, while I simply fired and walked forward slowly, the gears of my mind still spinning, not attached to any thought or rationale. Fortunately, after many years of stress and patience, the best coping mechanism was to simply forget the stressor, and I did so quickly, throwing myself wholeheartedly into the fight. A small batch of different modeled reinforcements mounted the upper segments of the cliff face and some were firing down an inorganic, pearl colored substance down onto the operatives. 

My aim turned to those on the top, bullets landing on several targets in a wide-spread. The constant wave of energy slugs I was firing off through the icy wind quickly came to a halt and instinctively I felt for a latch, looking at some way to pop the magazine and reload when the gun hissed and popped open a brightly shining chamber, a great deal of steam escaping up into the air around me and turning some of the flakes of frozen coolant into liquid before my very eyes. After about two seconds it clicked back into place and a satisfying noise of a charge came back as I continued firing, the weapon apparently able to turn something in the air of the planet into a plasma slug. I did not delay as three of the five bombardiers fell, a splattering of adhesive substance trapping the others while they struggled to escape their fallen kind’s trap.

“Move! Move! Leave any limbs you need to behind and let’s get going!” Rho barked at the operatives, one of which that had been caught in the adhesive leaving an entire limb behind in the mess to hobble toward their goal. While haphazard and disjointed, I began to notice that these augmented individuals would not be kept down too easily.

I followed with haste behind them, trying to avoid the goo to the best of my ability. I passed the prosthetic in the adhesive, already corroded by the horrific adhesive acid. A moderate-sized monitor hovered over the hillside next to the spider-like proxies. The face of a well-augmented individual appearing on screen. Were it not for the markings across his face, I would assume this was a terrible attempt to mimic the regal look of the Orokin authority with the rag-tag technology that was commonplace within this sector of the system. The voice boomed loud enough to echo through the valley towards us, unhindered by the wind or movement around it.

“Oh, Solaris. You once again are sticking your filthy circuits where they don’t belong. That one is my property, bought to me through the Void’s will, and I plan to have it back. Fools who know not the beauty of the Void must be swallowed by its magnificence.” Rho took several shots at the monitor, all of which were deflected by an unseen shield and they cursed under their breath.

“Mucking Nef. Of course he’d step in personally. Nothing is ever easy round here.” Rho gave another signal to the group. “Make for the pass if you want to see your bunks tonight! The void’s callin’ boys, and I have no intention of answering!” The other members tossed out a small cube, each one unfolding into a small, mobile platform which one person could safely mount. Rho then turned to me, as most of the Solaris fled on the boards. “How fast are you, Tenno? I’ll give you my K-Drive if you don’t think you can make it on foot.” They ran beside me now, offering a cube of their own as the others were already about a hundred meters ahead now. It was then I realized what was happening. Rho did not have another means of escape, and was offering me the one thing that would keep them alive. At this motion, a fire burned in my chest. Rage bellowed inside me. Call it honor, call it pride, I refused and pushed the object back at them, proceeding to bound ahead, demonstrating my speed and hoping they would get the hint, and not throw their life away.

I was not as fast as a K-Drive, but I was fast. Transports were closing in overhead, rounds fired from both riders and machines alike as Rho caught up, now riding their own board. “It’s still nearly another mile to the pass, Tenno. Nef isn’t going to let us walk away, not while you’re involved. But I have no intentions of leaving you to that filthy profit pusher. I’m either coming back with you, or not coming back at all. We didn’t get this far just to fail here.” I raised my gun, firing another few rounds before leaping forward, and away from the corrosive adhesive that quickly splattered the rock face behind where I was moments ago, several of the quadrupeds running behind us at full force, keeping pace with our movements.

A static was just barely audible over the gunfire, coming from Rho as they let loose a full clip to drop yet another group of the smaller Raknoids that had attempted to cut us off. “Scouts say the Mother is on her way. The pressure is on, now.” Rho’s encouragement paused to maneuver the board around a barrage of bullets before pulling back up alongside me. “Toss me your gun, and make for the largest rock you see on the left. Right behind it is a cave the larger Raknoids can’t follow through. I’ll run the pass and make sure they don’t try digging in after.” While hesitant of this plan, I knew this would be the best option. I was the intended target, and a distraction could give us time, even if it was only a tiny bit extra. Without any other option, I tossed the weapon to the Solaris operative and began running with all my might. They deftly snagged the rifle, spun on the board and began unloading each into the group of proxies pursuing us. “Another hundred meters, Tenno. Be ready!” 

The pass ahead was overlooked by a massive amount of ice clinging to the nearby mountains, but had been hollowed from beneath by a running source of coolant. The entrance was large enough for perhaps a Raknoid or two, and I saw why we would be needing an alternate route. 

Only a few meters in was the stone I assumed was my goal. As I slid to the rock face Rho kicked the K-Drive into high speed. “See you later, Tenno!” Diving into the hole, I slid down a slope of snow and ice for nearly another hundred meters to the waiting arms of the Solaris, weapons raised. The one who had approached me early called out to the others. 

“Tenno’s here, do it.” An operative with organic limbs remaining pulled up a mobile unit of some kind, punching in a code and only moments later the floor of the cavern shook powerfully enough to topple the Solaris missing a limb. Some braced against the wall, while others, stabilized by augmented limbs, already had started to scout ahead down the cavern. A powerful spray of dust and ice shards making its way down the passage I had just come, settling behind us. A small murmur went around the cave as several members shared concerned noises.

“That should do it. The glacier crumbled atop the passage just as we anticipated.” The operative called Kota approached, handing me a new weapon, which appeared to be a sidearm very similar to the first weapon I had been handed. “The Corpus don’t take the time to map out these caves very often unless there is something of value in them, making this a perfect escape route. We received word that there will be a Tenno dropship for you, we are currently setting up a rendezvous point, but it will take us some time to get through the cavern. You’re in good hands, Tenno.” They turned, and the Solaris began to move again. I turned back, unsure if they knew if Rho was even alive or not. And a pang of guilt found its way into my core, the feeling that this could have been prevented. I was accustomed to losing people on the battlefield, and this situation was dire. All things called for drastic measures, yet I still desired a better outcome. A leader like Rho Ulova comes around once in a century. 

Things could have been different.


End file.
